Leonard Evans is an internationally renowned traffic-safety expert. He has a bachelor’s degree in physics from the Queen’s University of Belfast, Northern Ireland, and a doctorate in physics from Oxford University, England. In 2000, he formed Science Serving Society, a one-man informal organization, to facilitate ongoing professional activities after completing a 33-year research career with General Motors Corporation.

Dr. Evans has presented invited traffic-safety lectures in 29 countries, and written two books -- Traffic Safety (2004) and Traffic Safety and the Driver (1991). While most of his more than 160 publications document traffic safety research, he has also covered such diverse subjects as physics, mathematics, traffic engineering, transportation energy, human factors, and trauma analysis. His research appears in 46 different technical journals.

His contributions to traffic safety have received many recognitions, including awards from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the International Association for Accident and Traffic Medicine, the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine, the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, the Detroit Institute of Ophthalmology, the Society of Automotive Engineers, and General Motors. Dr. Evans has been president of the International Traffic Medicine Association and the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine, and a Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer. He is a fellow of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, a fellow of the Society of Automotive Engineers, a fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Arthur Carter
Senior Electronic Engineer
NHTSA, Intelligent Technologies Research Division

Arthur Carter was born in 1960 in Detroit, Michigan.  He joined NHTSA in 1992 when he transferred from the Department of Defense, Fort Meade, MD.  Mr. Carter worked for the DOD for 12 years, first as an engineering CO-OP student, and then full-time as an electrical engineer installing antennas and radio equipment.  Mr. Carter holds a B.S. degree from Michigan State University.

Since joining NHTSA, Mr. Carter has worked in the Office of Vehicle Safety Research.  He managed the Automated Collision Notification (ACN) Field Operational Test, carried out research on Intelligent Cruise Control, worked on the development of Rear-end and Intersection Crash Avoidance Performance Specifications, did key research for the T.R.E.A.D. initiative, and worked on the ITS initiative to reduce intersection crashes.  He is currently working on a program to investigate the safety benefits of vehicle-to-vehicle communications.

He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) professional society.

Michael D. Freitas
Managing Director, ITS Joint Program
FHWA

Mike is a Civil Engineer with over 35 years experience with FHWA. He has been involved in the Intelligent Transportation Systems Program since its inception and as such has been directly engaged in almost every facet of the Department’s ITS Program.  Mike is currently the Managing Director the ITS Joint Program Office.   In this position, he is responsible for oversight of the Department’s ITS Program and the day to day operation of the ITS Joint Program Office.

Dr. Ronald R. Knipling
Senior Research Scientist
Virginia Tech Transportation Institute

• Dr. Ron Knipling has 27 years experience in traffic safety research and has published more than 120 technical papers and reports in various traffic safety specialty areas including driver human factors, commercial fleet safety, driver training, crash causation, driver distraction and fatigue, crash avoidance technologies, data analysis, and research program management.  He has served with the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) since 2002.  This includes leadership or other key roles in the following projects:
• National Academies Transportation Research Board (TRB)-sponsored synthesis study of Effective Commercial Truck & Bus Safety Management Techniques.
• TRB synthesis study of Individual Differences and High-Risk Commercial Drivers.
• “SimVal” study validating the use of driving simulators for entry-level and advanced commercial driver training.
• Coordination of the 2005 Truck & Bus Safety & Security Symposium.
• “100-Car” Naturalistic Driving (instrumented vehicle) study.
• Instrumented vehicle study of commercial truck driver alertness, analysis of driving errors and risk factors, and crash countermeasure applicability.
• AASHTO Strategic Highway Safety Plan projects on heavy truck safety and drowsy and distracted driving.

Dr. Knipling also led the effort to establish a truck & bus safety committee and presence within TRB.  As the founding Chair of the Committee on Truck & Bus Safety Research (ANB70), he coordinated committee activities, including sessions and events at the annual meeting, reviewing and selecting research papers, and establishing partnerships with other truck & bus safety organizations and initiatives. 

From 1995 to 2002, Dr. Knipling served as Chief, Research Division, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), where he administered agency R&T, coordinated annual budgets and project funding, and managed the driver human factors program.  This program encompassed driver safety performance (including driver fatigue, physical/medical qualifications, selection and training, and non-commercial driver behavior), carrier compliance and safety management, and crash problem assessment.

Dr. Knipling served the previous six years as Engineering Research Psychologist in the Office of Crash Avoidance Research of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), where he managed a multi-disciplinary assessment study of crash causal factors and advanced technology countermeasures, developing innovative analytic approaches to assessing and modeling these crash problems and solutions. 

Prior to his U.S. DOT service, Dr. Knipling was a Program Manager at Allen Corporation of America, where for 11 years he led transportation-related and other applied research projects.  This included numerous statistical analyses and other research projects for NHTSA OCAR and leadership of the original National Accident Sampling System (NASS) researcher training program.

John B. Kwasnoski is Professor Emeritus of Forensic Physics at Western New England College, Springfield, MA after thirty-one years on the faculty.  He is a certified police trainer in more than twenty states. And has instructed prosecutors and police on over 100 occasions  He is the crash reconstructionist on the “Lethal Weapon - DWI Homicide” team formed by the National Traffic Law Center to teach prosecutors how to utilize expert witness testimony and cross examine adverse expert witnesses.  He has trained with prosecutors and police on over one hundred occasions.  Prof. Kwasnoski has reconstructed over 750 crashes, including multiple and single vehicle, pedestrian, motorcycle, and train crashes.

He has served as an expert in several cases of national significance including  S. Carolina v. Susan Smith (a mother’s drowning murder of her two children) in which he participated in the re-enactment of the drowning in a submerged automobile and the creation of a video used in the sentencing phase of the trial.  He also reconstructed the multiple vehicle crash in Washington, DC in which a Russian embassy aide was charged with vehicular homicide (U.S.A. v. Makharadze) and subsequently pled guilty after being released from diplomatic immunity.  He was the reconstructionist for the plaintiff in the case of Ulm v. Ford Motor Co. in which a jury awarded the plaintiff over one million dollars. 

Recently Prof. Kwasnoski authored  From Crash to Courtroom: Collision Reconstruction for Lawyers and Law Enforcement (Towerpub.com) and Crash Reconstruction Basics for Prosecutors for the American Prosecutors Research Institute (which may be downloaded online at ndaa-apri.org).  Prof. Kwasnoski has co-authored three best-selling books for Lexis Law Publishing : Investigation and Prosecution of DWI and Vehicular Homicide, Courtroom Survival, and The Officer’s DUI Manual.  In 1989 he authored a widely used trial manual, Establishing Liability in Vehicular Accidents, which presents predicate questions to introduce the technical topics of crash reconstruction in a jury-friendly and convincing manner.

Professor Kwasnoski if the creator of “Crash - The Science of Collisions” a series of science and mathematics teaching materials for high school students that focuses on automobile crashes. 

Dave Melton is responsible at the corporate level for developing and supporting transportation related safety and health products and consulting services. He advocates and participates in transportation-related research projects at the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety.

Mr. Melton has held numerous positions in both field and executive management and senior technical roles. His 37-year career with Liberty Mutual has moved him frequently throughout the United States and Canada.

Mr. Melton represents Liberty Mutual on the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS) where he is the Chairman of the NETS Board of Directors for a two-year term.

He is a past member of the Board of Directors of the Professional Truck Driver Institute (PTDI). He was Chairman of the Board, Elect, of the Texas Safety Association and served on the Board of Directors.

Mr. Melton has received an appointment to the permanent Committee on Truck and Bus Safety, A3B57, of the Transportation Research Board, National Academy of Sciences & Engineering. He also represents NETS on the ANSI Z-15 Accredited Standards Committee on Safety Requirements for Motor Vehicle Fleet Operations.

Mr. Melton holds an A.B. degree from Eastern Kentucky University. He is a Canadian Registered Safety Professional (CRSP) and a Certified Director of Safety (CDS).

Robert Strassburger is Vice President, Vehicle Safety & Harmonization for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. Since joining the Alliance in April 2000, Strassburger has overseen the development of several voluntary industry standards and commitments to enhance motor vehicle safety. These standards and commitments establish test procedures and performance criteria for: side air bags to minimize the risk of injury to out-of-position occupants; in-vehicle communications and telematics systems to minimize the potential for driver distraction from such systems; and vehicle-to-vehicle crash compatibility of cars and light trucks. Strassburger also oversees the Alliance’s safety research, which includes development of new crash test dummies, crash investigations, and fundamental injury causation studies.

Strassburger joined the Alliance from Nissan North America where he had been Director of Government Affairs and was primarily responsible for helping establish Nissan policies and positions. Prior to joining Nissan, Strassburger held several safety, engineering and vehicle emissions positions at Mazda North American Operations.

In 2004, Strassburger was appointed by Governor Bill Richardson to the governor’s Task Force on Ignition Interlock Technology and Deployment. Strassburger was appointed to study the use of ignition interlock devices and other technology to use in New Mexico’s battle against alcohol impaired driving. Strassburger was also appointed to NHTSA’s Blue Ribbon Panel II in November 1998. He was appointed to recommend ways to increase the use of age and size appropriate occupant restraints by children age 4-15, whenever they are riding in a motor vehicle.

Strassburger earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan.